Estrada Comes Clean

Not sure if you saw this story on Johnny Estrada that ran over the weekend.

It seems that in addition to Johnny's hammy problem, which we knew about, he had bone spurs in his elbow that made it hard for him to throw, and he couldn't take anti-inflammatories because they had eaten a hole in his stomach.

Therefore, he was throwing "changeups" to second base (Haudricourt's words, not mine) and opponents took liberties with this, to put it mildly.

A couple of Johnny quotes are worth mentioning:

"I was pathetic," Estrada said bluntly.

And:

"I couldn't throw anybody out," he said. "I knew it. Everybody knew it."

And:

"My defense has declined the last couple of years and I'm not happy about it," he said. "I originally got to the big leagues on my defense. I'm hoping it will be back to where it once was. I don't feel like the Brewers got the player they traded for. I'm excited about coming back next year and showing what I can do. I just want to get my arm strength back and be the catcher I used to be. I've forgotten what it feels like for my elbow not to hurt."

The bone spurs have been cleaned out, but this leaves us with a couple of questions. If Melvin knew about this problem before he traded for Estrada (which he must have), why not have this repaired in the offseason last year? It might be that the trade happened late enough that they couldn't get it fixed without him missing time in 2007 - I don't remember exactly when the trade occurred.

Will we hear Ned Yost blaming the "breakup of scar tissue" in Estrada's elbow as the reason that he continues to throw out 7.6% of basestealers early on next year?

Is there really any realistic option other than Estrada at catcher again next year?